Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

HOLA MADRE 

Actually wait

okay

I have a story that goes along with that phrase now and my life will never be the same

remind me in a second because I`ve got to introduce you to my companion and my area and all of that cool stuff right now hehehe!

MY COMPANION HERMANA RHOADS IS THE MOST AMAZING HUMAN BEING THAT I KNOW

SHE`S SO AMAZING

I AM SO GRATEFUL TO HAVE HER AS A TRAINER

Granted, the first two days were really rough because 1) I didn`t know what I was doing and 2) I JUST REALLY DIDN`T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING. So, we didn`t talk much the first two days, but then suddenly some mental switch flipped in my brain and I remembered who I am and WE ARE ACTUALLY THE BEST PAIR OF HUMANS THAT HAS EVER EXISTED TBH [to be honest]

Hermana Rhoads has been in the field for casi diez meses [almost 10 months] and she is totally awesome. She is so much fun that I just can`t even explain and she has made my transition into the real world an awesome transition and I am just SO SO SO SO grateful for her. She is just SO AWESOME and to be honest, that was one of my big fears of starting out in the field: getting a new companion. But she is so awesome. 

And the field

let me tell you a story about the field

once upon a time there was a place called el campo misional [the mission field]

AND IT WAS AWESOME

the end

So, if you were worried about my health or my adjusting-ness at all, have no fear. Because this is actually so amazing. I love the field and I love actually getting to speak Spanish all the time; it is so much easier to learn Spanish when you`re surrounded by people who only speak Spanish. That`s something that I have really appreciated about Hermana Rhoads; she made it clear from the beginning that we speak Spanish when we speak, pero [but], because I am still learning, we take a break once we`re in our pajamas. She`s so awesome. And she loves palta [avocado] and that is really a blessing. A real life blessing.

OKAY NOW LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY ZONE AND AREA/SECTOR ALRIGHT 

OKAY SO I AM IN

drumroll please

ZONA INDEPENDENCIA

and I am serving in the Los Olivos ward! 

And also, there are 8 missionaries in our ward, pero, porque la mayoría de los misioneros trabajan en la oficina [but, because most of the missionaries are working in the office] (that also means that we`re the only hermanas in our sector), we have most of the work. And our sector is huge.

Huge as in we should be a biking sector.

But the roads are too dangerous, entonces [then], we don`t have bikes and we just walk everywhere

and walk

and walk

and walk

and walk

and walk

and walk

and walk

and walk

and there`s this hill across the street from us called Cerro Blanco and sometimes we have to walk up that thing

it`s like

a 90º angle

it`s insane

and we walk up it

with our feets

and our piernas [legs]

and then we walk all over the rest of the place all the time and there is just a lot of walking and unfortunately, we have very few progressing investigators, entonces, we also talk to a lot of people. But not a whole lot of people because, and I don`t want anybody to worry because nothing bad has happened yet (that`s a great way to start a sentence I know), but our sector is poco flaete. 

And by poco I mean that it is probably 2nd in our mission in flaete-ness. 

And if you were wondering what flaete means, it means basically, gangster, BUT PLEASE DON`T BE WORRIED I AM A SMART HUMAN BEING AND ALSO RATHER TALL AND ALSO WE ARE VERY SAFE HUMAN BEINGS LET ME JUST TELL YOU [I have never been one to worry excessively about my missionaries, since they are on the Lord's errand, but it's always reassuring to know that she is a smart, safe human being. teehee]

But that brings me back to my original story that I need to tell you. 

The other day in the street we went on this type of weird splits thing with some members of Recoleta and invited people to their ward conference and when I was walking around with a few hermanas, there was a man that pointed at me (which happens very frequently because I am tall and gringa do not worry I am safe) and then just started saying, `HOLA MADRE, MADRE, HOLA MADRE,` a lot and even the ward members were like, `that is a new one` but in Spanish because that`s the language they speak. Somebody also called me princesa [princess] and many people are eager to have families, but PLEASE DO NOT WORRY I AM SAFE.

[I have to admit, that last statement just made Lee and me laugh out loud! HAHA] 

Also there are so many dogs.

Much dog. Very street. 

There are probably more dogs than there are humans and there are also many kitties, but it is a mission rule that we may not touch any animals, whether they`re pets or not, we may not touch the animals no no no. 

Okay, let me tell you a thing: here in Santiago, graffiti (how do you even spell that) is totally legal, so there is graughfittiey everywhere but here`s the thing: it`s all more beautiful than anything you`ve ever seen in your life. There is some darn good grrahffeetiy here.

All of these pictures you`re getting are of my CCM district and also our last group of Latinos, just so you know.

Also, I get to visit the temple on May 14th! Woohoo! The drive from the CCM to my area was literally twenty minutes. OH LET ME ALSO SAY

Hermana Paulson is way out in the campo and she is the only one of our newly arrived missionaries that got what she feared literally since day one: a biking area. That was one of the first things she told me, and he aquí, she`s in a biking sector. 

To be honest, I don`t remember what he aquí means [it means 'behold'] but it´s at the beginning of like every scripture, so I have a feeling it`s something about and it came to pass. But anyway. 

ALSO BEFORE I FORGET

What happened before I came here to the what`s it

the field 

that`s the name

before I came here and when Hna Paulson y yo fuimos contactando [and I went contacting], we talked to this one little old lady that insisted we call her abuelita [granny] and she thought that I was Hna Paulson`s mom and then when she talked to Hna Hokanson and Palmer, she referred to us as `señora alta y su hija` [high lady and her daughter] entonces, that happened. 

Also, lately it has been SUPER SUPER DOOPER SMOGGY and we were wondering why but then somebody told us it was because that volcán errupted again and so it`s actually ash/smog?? And she also told us that there was a lot of destruction, for which we are praying very much a lot for. I also heard some news about a tsunami in Japan? Aaahhhh, this is all very not good :/ I am sending many prayers out. 

Oh, these pictures matter a lot: one is of me and Hermana Cardús, the hermana that I was acompañante[companion/escort] to in the temple, and the other one is Hermano Ceballos. He was our night teacher the first two weeks and if you zoom in on his face, you will know everything you need to know about him.

 

But anyway, I have taught lessons already and it has been crazy! Sometimes it`s hard for me to open my mouth but I just have to remember that I have been set apart to do this work and it is my job to open my mouth and if I do just that much, it will be filled with the words that our investigators (and conversos recientes [recent converts] and menos activos [less actives]) need to hear. This truly is an amazing and special calling and I am more than grateful to be able to do this work. 

Okay, I`ve actually got to go now, but I will talk to you all later! I love you all very much and quizás [perhaps] next week I will have something more than just facts and things to tell you about. 

Oh, I should mention that Hermana and Presidente Videla are AMAZING and I love them so much :) and it`s nice to have the elders in the office: they`re a bunch of bros. 

Anyway, I love you all so much! And I will for sure have a thousand more things to tell you next week and I love you so much, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

I CANNOT EXPRESS IN WORDS MY LOVE OKAY JUST KNOW THAT IT EXISTS AND IT IS MUY FUERTE [VERY STRONG]

STRONGER THAN THE SMELL IN THE STREETS OF SANTIAGO

it`s a very distinct smell

let me tell you

Sending love from Chile!

Until we meet again,

Hermana Schomburg

Citizens of Santiago... SHE HAS ARRIVED!!!

The arriving missionaries
4-21-15

[This blog post has been pieced together from two different e-mails and a scanned, handwritten letter which we received from the mission office on Tuesday afternoon when Hermana Schomburg left the Chile CCM and arrived in her mission - Chile Santiago North.  She is happy and excited to serve!]
 

"It was a great pleasure to welcome your daughter to our mission.  She arrived safely, is enthusiastic, and anxious to begin missionary work here in the Chile Santiago North mission.  I have interviewed her carefully and find her well prepared, with a strong testimony, and a good beginning foundation in the Spanish language.  I feel honored to be her mission president and know that the Lord has prepared many people here to receive the testimony of the restoration she bears.   Sister Videla and I will treat her as our own daughter."  - President Rene O. Videla 

The arriving missionaries with Hermana and President Videla

[The next paragraphs are taken from the letter that Herman Schomburg wrote upon her arrival at the mission office.]

I have been thinking a lot on why I came on a mission; why I decided I needed to do this because that is usually everybody's first question, and for a long time I answered that I wanted to share my testimony and joy, which is true, but I think the reason is deeper, too.  I never decided I needed to go on a mission; I think and believe that that decision was made long before I came to this earth. [See God's Plan of Salvation for more information.]  My decision to come was more of a knowledge that it was going to happen. My decision has been to accept and act upon my calling and to love it more than I've ever loved anything. The fact that I needed to come on a mission was just that: a fact. I just had to discover my own 'why.' I don't think any of this probably makes sense now that it's on paper, but it makes sense in my head so I'm sticking to it.  And either way, I am more than excited to be serving a mission. I owe everything I have to this gospel and to Dios y Jesucristo. The least I can do is to serve them through their people for a short 18 months. 

[And in typical Hermana Schomburg style...] 

I will (most likely) send photos and more information next week (like who my trainer is and where I actually physically am) and more fun stories.  For now just know that when I blew my nose after being on the subway and bus there and back, my snot was black. BLACK! There's an image for you. :D Ciao for now. I LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN WORDS!!

Until we meet again,
Hermana Schomburg

Hermana Schomburg and her trainer Hermana Rhoads

I LOVE EVERYTHING

AHHHH I´M SO GLAD YOU GOT TO SEE THAT PICTURE BECAUSE I WASN´T SURE HOW I WAS GOING TO GET IT TO YOU BECAUSE WE DIDN´T GET IT IN AN EMAIL AND ALSO I´M SORRY THAT YOU DIDN´T HEAR FROM ME YESTERDAY WE GOT OUR P-DAYS SWITCHED AROUND BECAUSE OF REASONS [They attended the temple.]

(these pictures are from Domino´s which is a completo place and I got a completo called the Dinámica) [A cpmpleto is basically a Chilean hotdog with everything on it]

Okay so, this week has been JAM PACKED but also has gone by, not so quickly as the other weeks, but very quickly. 

(these are photos right before we went out today and they´re in our cute little classroom; I couldn´t get everybody to look at the camera so I gave up. Such is life)

ALSO HERMANO SALINAS (Pascal´s husband) JUST WALKED INTO THE ROOM AND I FELT A LOT CLOSER TO HOME BECAUSE YOU JUST SAID THAT SHE POSTED THE PHOTO AND HE SAID THAT HE SENT IT TO HER AND I JUST HAVE A FEW TEARS IN MY EYES BECAUSE I´M REALLY NOT THAT FAR FROM HOME NOT REALLY NOT EN REALIDAD [The photo at the top of the page was shared by a friend of Andrew who he knew from his mission in Ecuador.  Her husband is a teacher at the CCM in Chile.]

(these are pictures of our Elders: the first is of Elder Muir and the second is  (from left to right) Elder Taylor, Elder Muir, Elder Spanbauer on the sidewalks of Pedro de Valdivia (just south of Pocuro if you want to look it up))

this is chis pops which I haven´t tried but i saw them and laughed many laughs

haha

and also we ate completos at El Pollo Grande again today and they were magnificent

I highly recommend them

highly recommend

this is a copycat photo of me playing in the fountain water outside the Santiago temple because I think of Andrew every time I go out there and yeah just yup

and also the other one is of district gr8 hermanas on the street because why not

these are all silly selfie photos that are terrible and rather candid but they basically capture the life of a missionary

silly selfies

pretty temple

yes yes yes

OKAY NOW I NEED TO TELL YOU ACTUAL THINGS BECAUSE I AM RUNNING OUT OF TIME HOLYCANNOLI

Okay, so, yesterday [Tuesday] we went to the temple! With our new group of Latinos, only four or so were endowed, which mean that all five of the new hermanas were going to go through for the first time, so, I had the privilege of being (I don´t remember what the word is in English) acompañante to Hermana Cardús. It was difficult because there was very little I could do to comfort her; my Spanish only goes so far, but I think she just needed a hand to hold most of the time. [While attending the temple for the first time is not a frightening experience, it's always nice to have someone with you to help you know where to go and what to do.]  She didn´t know anything about the endowment process at all, so I helped her a lot (and some other silly things happened with my audiophones a lot but that doesn´t matter right now) and was glad to just be able to be there for her. I didn´t know what I could tell her, but I managed to tell her something along the lines of just remembering that she was in the house of the Lord; she needn´t worry about anything. We sat in the celestial room together for a long time and it just all was very spiritual and reminded me why I am on my mission.

My goal with every investigator, every contact, every person, is the temple. There is no greater gift I can think of than being in the house of the Lord for a time. Going through with Hermana Cardús made me feel more connected to each person that I do work for. They´re real people; they have been waiting for this for a very long time. All of the people I´ve gone through for in the Santiago temple have been from the 1600s to the 1800s and their spirits have been strong there. I love the temple. I´m grateful to have had the opportunithy to spend so much time so nearby and even though it´s not in my mission, my mission is within 10 minutes of it and with the Santiago missions, it´s very easy to get permission to cross into other areas for a time, especially to go to the temple. I just love the temple so much.

[LDS Temples - Click here for more information about the how, what, and why we build temples.]

You would like it a lot too, Momma, the Santiago one I mean. The colors are all those blue and brown colors that you love: the whole temple is that color scheme (though a lot lighter, but still, I realized that yesterday and just chuckled to myself)

I´ve been having those out of body experiences a lot lately too. I still can´t believe I´m in Chile, though every once in a while it hits me and I fall over for a time and can´t move. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY SO MUCH

I LOVE IT

Today we were supposed to practice contacting, so I talked to the man in the special envelope store and gave him a pass along card and talked about missionaries for a little bit and I just

YES

YES TO EVERYTHING

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

I LOVE EVERYTHING

Also, my health is well. I have yet to get sick (though there´s an urban myth that everybody gets sick going into winter because the temperature changes muy rápido, as in it´s 90 one day and 40 the next and then keeps going down) and my tummy has been fine. I don´t know how I´ve been surviving actually... I just haven´t had a problem yet... I´ve been... oddly fine... suspicious...

But anyway, we haven´t walked a whole lot, BUT 

DRUM ROLL AND MUSIC

WE´RE GOING CONTACTING FOR REAL TOMORROW IN THE PARK

AND ON FRIDAY

WE

ARE

TAKING

THE 

SUBWAY

AND

GOING

ON

SPLITS

WITH

REAL

MISSIONARIES

I MEAN

I KNOW THAT I´M A REAL MISISONARY BUT I´M NOT REALLY A REAL MISSIONARY NOT YET BECAUSE I´M STILL IN THE CCM I DON´T KNOW I JUST

SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I AM 100% READY TO JUST GET OUT THERE AND GET TO WORK BUT SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I WANT TO CURL INTO A SMALL BALL because I am not ready to get out there it is a scary world I am not a real missionary yet oh no oh no

OKAY I HAVE VERY LIMITED TIME SO HERE I HAVE SOME BULLET POINTS THAT I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE TIME TO EXPAND UPON WE´LL FIND OUT AND YOULL EITHER BE ENTERTAINED OR CONFUSED WE´LL SEE

-Hermano Riutor

-Frogs

-Papelito

-´Keep Sueñoing´

Okay, Hermano Riutor is hilarious. He´s this little human that is our teacher and he is just so funny and he doesn´t have a lot of hair anD BEFORE I FORGET I HAVE TO TELL YOU ALL THAT ALL OF MJY TEACHERS ARE DARN YOUNG

I KEEP FORGETTING TO SAY THAT

BUT THEY ARE SO YOUNG

MY OLDEST TEACHER HAS BEEN 27

AND RIGHT NOW I HAVE A TEACHER THAT IS 21

I HAVE HAD SEVERAL THAT ARE 21

HERMANO RIUTOR IS ONLY 25

THEY´RE ONLY SMALL PEPLE

THEY´RE AS OLD AS ME

But anyway, Hermano Riutor is the best. The other day we thought there was a frog in the comedor [dining hall] and he said that there aren´t many frogs here but there were in Argentina where he served and then he said something about you would walk down the streets kicking them but he said the wrong word because he couldn´t think of the word in English and it sounded like he said chewing and so then we laughed for about forty years about how funny it was and he kept pretending to be chewing on frogs and it doesn´t sound that funny when I write it down but IT WAS SO FUNNY AND WE WERE ALL SLEEP DEPRIVED SO IT WAS EVEN BETTER

ALSO THERE IS AN HERMANO HERE NAMED HERMANO PARDO AND HE CAN MOVE HIS EARS AND HE MAKES FACES AT ME ON A REGULAR BASIS AND WE´VE NEVER SPOKEN BUT WHENEVER HE SEES ME HE STOPS AND MOVES HIS EARS AND THE ONLY WORDS HE´S SAID TO ME ARe ´sí, usted puede´ [yes, you can] because I was smiling and I can´t move my ears when I´m smiliing so i said ´no puede´ [cannot] but anyway as you can tellby my rapidly worseining typing skills, i am OUT OF TIME RIGHT NOW BUT LET ME TELL YOU THAT I LOVE IT HERE AND I LOVE YOU ALL AND I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR LAL OF YOUR WORDS OF KINDESS AND YOUR LOVE AND SEND MY LOVE TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE

ALL OF YOU

ROBBY

ANDREW

JEFFREY

MOMMY

DADDY

GRANDMA

DOGS

CATS

ACTUALLY JUST LITERALLY EVERYBODY I SENT A WHOLE BUNCH OF LETTERS DODAY OH MAHN  I HAVE GOT TO GO I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

also i miss you sometimes and sometimes it is hard and i pray for you a lot but it´s not that bad but sometimes

sometimes it is

BUT I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ALSO JUST

SHOOT

OH MAN

I MUST FLY

CIAO FOR NOW

LOVE YOU GUYS LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU OS AMO

i just used vosotros

i just used it

i did it

OH YES CONGRATS TO TREVOR AND JACOB I SENT THEM NOTES TODAY ANYWAY LOVE YOU BYE

 [Two young men in our ward have just been called to serve their missions in Barcelona Spain and Sao Paulo Brazil.]

Until we meet again,

-Hermana Schomburg

My Knees are Brown and Crusty

THESE ARE SOME PHOTOS LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN THEM

[She didn't actually tell anything about them except for the last one - a little.] :)

This appears to be an MTC phys ed activity

All the members of the Chile MTC

Okay so on the last photo in the middle crouching down with his arms out is Elder Perrier and he is like my beST FRIEND AND HE LEFT TODAY TO GO TO HIS MISSION AND HE´S IN OESTE (you don´t have to include all of this information in the caption, just that he´s my buddy) and he´s the one that´s from Switzerland and speaks only French and he´s become like a brother to me. Obviously he could never replace my real brothers, but he´s as close as it gets down here. He and the elder to the right is Elder Tardencilla and he is also amazing. I´ve only known him for two weeks, but he´s going to be an awesome missionary. I am seriously so blessed to be here with all these awesome Hermanas and Élderes; they´re like my brothers and sisters away from home and they are all amazing. I am quite grateful :) but anyway, I have more pictures to upload and an actual email to write; just a mo

OKAY SO LET ME JUST TELL YOU ALL ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED THIS WEEK MAYBE IF I CAN REMEMBER

First I want to say that these weeks have seriously gone by so quickly, it´s not even funny. I´m starting my 5th week in Chile today.

Let me say that again:

I´m starting my 5th week in Chile today. 

Yeah, this is crazy. The days sometimes go by so slowly but then suddenly it´s P-Day again and it feels like I was writing to you and out shopping and stuff literally yesterday, but tis not true. Our investigators and teachers for the last two weeks have been absolutely amazing; they have challenged me in ways that I didn´t know I could be challenged. I don´t remember if I mentioned this before, but we had an investigator named Carla that was becoming a bit of a trial of our faith (we found out that Carla is actually CCM famous for being terribly difficult to deal with) and so one day, after struggling to find out what her need was and teach according to that need, we asked our teacher (who was portraying her) for help and she advised us to go into a lesson without a plan, which was hard for Hermana Paulson and I because we really like to have a plan. 

So, we went in without a plan. And we just talked with her. And we cried a lot and it was somewhat accidental but we cried a whole dang lot and the Spirit was very strong and long story short, after our next lesson, she literally asked us if she could be baptized. 

Let me repeat that:

She asked us if she could be baptized. 

Right at the beginning of the lesson, too. I think our problem was that we knew that Carla was hard to teach and it was making it hard for us to love her as much as we could, but with that lesson/not lesson both Hna. Paulson and I realized that we really did love her, even if she was only being portrayed by our teacher. Andrew talked to me about loving the people before I left and I have taken that to heart and it has made all the difference. These people aren´t real, but the people that I meet in the field will be. If I can´t love my investigators here in the CCM, how much harder will it be for me to love them later? 

Mmkay, I apologize in advance because my thoughts are basically everywhere, so this is going to be a roller-coastery email (very much like every other email I´ve sent so far). 

Now I´m going to talk about conference! I´m not sure exactly what I´m going to say about conference though because there were so many things and I have about twenty pages of notes, so yeah, but let me just tell you how all that went down. Basically, conference didn´t start until 13:00 here because of the time difference and all, so we had classes in the morning (and between sessions) and then went and watched in the institute (perhaps I should mention that there are five basic buildings here: the institute, the CCM, la capilla, the temple of course, and Hospedaje [which is where most missionaries stay]) and it was just so amazing! I know a lot of the missionaries were getting restless because all the talks seemed to be about marriage and family, but I personally found that they were exactly what I needed to hear and they were more than applicable to not only myself, but especially to my future investigators. I especially liked the talk by Linda K. Burton about brothers, fathers, husbands, and priesthood holders in general. She talked about what we can do to strengthen our relationships with our companions and even though she was talking about marital companions, everything she said was highly applicable to mission companions, or really companions of any type. She reminded me to speak words of kindness often and to seek the help of the Holy Ghost to do so. 

I also really enjoyed Kevin W. Pearson´s talk; it had so many little nuggets of happiness in it. I don´t have much time to discuss it right now, but I highly recommend looking up all the conference talks and watching or reading them after they come out. This conference was really amazing. 

I also wanted to apologize for not seeming like I say a lot about the things that happen at home: I don´t mean to not address those things, I love hearing things so much but once I hear your things I just immediately want to talk about all of my things too :)

I´M SO GLAD JEFFREY AND MY KITTIES LOVE EACH OTHER YAYAYAYAYAY I LOVE MY KITTIES SO MUCH I LOVE KITTIES AND THERE´S A KITTY THAT ROAMS THE TEMPLE GARDEN ALL THE TIME AND JUST HANGS OUT AND HE´S SO CUTE AND I DON´T EVER TOUCH HIM BUT THE OTHER DAY SOMEBODY TRIED TO PUSH HIM INTO THE FOUNTAIN AND I SAVED HIM SO THERE´S THAT 

So yeah. I bought some gummy worms last Tuesday in honor of Jeffrey and I also found some peach rings but they were way expensive (I´m sorry Robby) and I also bought Tabasco to honor Andrew and yeah I don´t know what I´m saying I´ve got so many thoughts in my head right now

We moved again today! We moved from the Birdhouse (which we nicknamed the Birdshack for reasons) into the Ghost Room! Woohoo! Hnas Palmer and Hokanson were in there last and they said that they would wake up and their watches would be on different times and the wall clock would always change, so really looking forward to that, but at least we´re inside the house again! I should mention that it was way fun being in the Birdshack because I can make my bird call noise with my hands so I would make it whenever the Elderes were in the courtyard and they would start looking in the trees and stuff and it was such a good time, but anyway...

I don´t really know what else to say. 

I´m at a loss for words.

Which is strange.

OH LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS LANGUAGE

Okay so Spanish. I think I´ve successfully learned all the principles of Spanish and endings that I need to know, but the application is the hard part. Hna Paulson and I have made it a goal to try to speak only in Spanish ever so that we won´t be brain dead when we get into the field. We talk with all kinds of people in the temple square and on the streets and I FORGOT TO TELL YOU BUT I TOOK A TAXI LAST P-DAY HOLY CANNOLI I TOOK

A 

TAXI

AND NOBODY ELSE COULD FIND THE SPANISH WORDS IN THEIR MINDS SO I HAD TO TELL HIM WHERE WE WANTED TO GO AND ALL THIS STUFF AND IT WAS SO STRESSFUL AND SO AMAZING AND WE´RE GONNA DO IT AGAIN TODAY WOOOOHOOOOO

That brings up another point though: Hermana Paulson is such a sweet girl. She just is very sweet. She´s from Idaho Falls and grew up there and was born in Utah and is pure bred Mormon, and so are the rest of the hermanas in my district.

Which means that every time we go out into the street on P-Day they are scared out of their minds because the people are not all Mormons and it has been very interesting for me because the people on the street to me don´t even seem as scary as the people on the streets of Manitou Springs: they´re all really nice as a matter of fact, but all of my hermanas are afraid. It´s been... well the only word to describe it is interesting. I don´t have a whole lot of world/street experience or anything, but when I stand next to them, I look like I´ve grown up in the streets. 

That didn´t come out the way I meant it to.

But you understand.

[I'm so glad to know that my daughter is the one with "street cred." :) haha]

Anyway, it´s been fun with them. I´m very grateful for the new perspectives they open my mind up to.

Okay, I have a couple of other emails to write and though I hate to go, I must. I love you all! 

OH YEAH FOR EASTER ELDER AND SISTER JACOBSON WROTE OUR NAMES ON PLASTIC EGGS WITH CANDY INSIDE AND HID THEM AROUND ALCANTARA AND WE HAD TO FIND THEM AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN HOLY CANNOLI 

But anyway, I love you all! Have a wonderful week; I´ll try to get some letters in the mail soon, but I have very little time to write them, so we´ll see how that goes. 

Nos vemos; ciao for now!

Until we meet again,

Hermana Schomburg

(also Momma, please title this email ´my knees are brown and crusty´ on account of the fact that we pray on our knees for every single prayer (and we pray before and after everything))

The first Chilean empanada

“Ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” (D&C 42:6).